CHILDREN'S GARDENS 209 



one day with a watering-can full of water in each 

 hand, joyously happy in the thought of caring for 

 his plot. The look of happiness and the momentary 

 forgetfulness of pain in the faces of these children, 

 whose days and nights are filled with suffering, is 

 intensely pathetic. The street and ordinary play- 

 ground, are prohibitive, because of the child's handicap 

 by physical deformity and weakness, but in this child's 

 world of beauty and delight, they can rest or work as 

 they desire. Their ages range from 3 to 20 years. 

 Of the latter age, one boy who had been paralyzed 

 for years was carried to a bench placed by the side 

 of a plot assigned to him; he could only feel the 

 leaves with one hand, and the well children did the 

 work for him, but the joy and happiness in watching 

 these living green things, which he. felt were his, gave 

 something to his spirit that was far beyond the effect 

 of any medicine. These little sufferers not only 

 carry away large armfuls of vegetables and flowers, 

 but a mental picture which mitigates the long hours 

 of suffering in their unattractive homes. . 



The garden has grown also in its usefulness to the 

 classes in biology and botany in the schools, who have 

 accepted, as never before, the courtesy extended. 600 

 boys from the DeWitt Clinton High School, in classes 

 varying from 45 to 200, made use of the garden three 

 times a week, finding for themselves the answers to 

 their botanical questions in the living green things in 

 the garden. 



The graduating class of girls from the Washington 



